take a wife to support the family

Chapter 11 The Difficult Sister-in-law

Qingliu Town is more than 40 miles away from the county seat. It takes a day to walk, but it takes half a day to get there by ox cart, and the horse cart is faster.Tourists, scholars, merchants, and bodyguards traveling from south to north all want to rest here. With this convenience, Qingliu Town is richer than other places.

The market is held every two days, every single day, and the girls and daughters-in-law from all over the world come to the market, some bring their own products to sell, and some hold some money and want to buy a Red rope, half a piece of rouge to dress up.

On important days such as the [-]th day of the Lunar New Year, the Jade Emperor’s Birthday Temple Fair on the [-]rd of March, the Buddha’s Birthday on the [-]th day of April, the Enlightenment Festival on the [-]th of July, and the Chongyang Festival of September [-]th, the town will also raise funds to invite troupes from the county to sing operas, Juggling, more lively than usual.

This day was just an ordinary market day, Song Haonian went out early in the morning to sell feather dusters.

Qingliu Town is along the river, and a wide and flat road runs through the middle, which was built by the imperial court. Numerous trails connect to the road from all directions, forming intersections and T-shaped intersections.

Song Haonian told Lily that he was going to sell the duster, but instead of selling it himself, he went to the town to find his sworn brother Wang Xiaofu and entrusted him with the duster and shuttlecock.

Wang Xiaofu is a peddler who walks around the streets and alleys. He is thin and smart. There is no one in the ten miles and eight villages that he doesn't know.

He naturally knows what kind of daughter-in-law is in Brother Jieyi's family. When he saw Song Haonian bringing something, he laughed: "Brother Haonian, you came just in time, and I haven't gone out yet. Have you eaten yet? If you haven't eaten, let my mother give it to you." You scoop up a bowl of vegetable paste."

Song Haonian smiled: "After eating at home, the food will be sent to you, and when it will be sold, it will be divided according to your rules."

Not only does Wang Xiaofu go to the county town to buy goods, but sometimes he also collects things nearby. This kind of collected things, even if they are on consignment, he does not need to pay in cash, but only depends on how much money they sell in the end. Five points.

This means that the customs in the countryside are simple and honest, and everyone knows each other, so business can be done by credit and memory.

Even if the sworn brother is his own brother, how can Wang Xiaofu earn more money from Song Haonian?But he knew that his elder brother was a simple and honest person, and he would not take advantage of others easily, so he didn't say those nice words to coax him, but said: "Okay, I'll tell you if it's sold."

He made up his mind that he would never give up selling feather dusters, and give all the money he got to Song Haonian.

After saying goodbye to Wang Xiaofu, Song Haonian went up the mountain to look at the traps and traps dug a few days ago. If he catches prey, he can not only eat it, but also sell the fur for some money.

Since Lily fell to the ground, she couldn't stay idle.She saw the gray sweat stains on the thin quilt she had covered, and she had long thought of washing it.

I had no strength before, but now, taking advantage of the good weather, I quickly removed the quilt cover, put the thin cotton wadding and a few shabby mattresses on the fence to dry, put the quilt cover in a wooden basin, and went to the well to fetch water.

She has carefully observed Song Haonian's work of fetching water, and must ensure that the mouth of the wooden barrel is plunged into the water before it can be filled with water.After trying twice, it really came up with water.

The quilt cover is two pieces of blue cloth, the face one is brighter, but it has already been washed to gray, and the inner one is bigger and dirtier than the face.

Soaking the quilt cover in clean water is not a good thing, it can't be washed clean like this.Lily thought about it, there was no washing powder for her these days, and acacia was only available in spring and summer. After thinking for a long time, she remembered how she had seen her grandmother wash clothes when she was a child.

She went to the kitchen, shoveled out two shovelfuls of plant ash from the stove, added half a basin of clean water, stirred it, and then clarified.When the ash sinks to the bottom, the upper layer of gray water can be decontaminated.In the era when there was no washing powder, people in rural areas washed clothes and bacon like this.

Plant ash decontamination powder is naturally not as good as washing powder. Fortunately, the food they eat has very little oil and water, and there are many sweat stains, but there is no oil and sweat. There are many bubbles, and they can barely clean after rubbing for a while.

She broke out in a sweat, soaked the quilt cover in the gray water, and sat beside her to bask in the sun.Suddenly a sharp and piercing voice came into my ears: "Okay, Li Baihe, you are so lazy when my second brother is not at home!"

Song Haonian's home is at the west end of the village, a little distance away from other people's homes. Lily has never seen anyone except Li Caifeng these days, so she was startled suddenly and opened her eyes quickly.

But I saw a person standing outside the fence. This person was not very old, he looked about sixteen or seventeen years old, with a big face, a flat nose, and a bit delicate eyebrows and eyes, but with an unreasonable bluntness. Wearing a thick braid, he was looking at her with his hands on his hips at this moment.

Lily frowned and thought for a while before she remembered who this person was - Song Haonian's younger sister, her sister-in-law, Song Xiuxiu.

Song Haonian was separated from the family, but his sister is still his sister.Since ancient times, sister-in-laws have been difficult to deal with, and sister-in-laws are inevitably weak in front of sister-in-laws. The eldest daughter of the Li family is a daughter-in-law "bought" by Song Haonian.

Earlier, the craftsman Li asked Erniu to make a new quilt for Lily in the town, but Song Xiuxiu snatched it home and said it was for her mother to cover.

After the big girl jumped into the river, Song Xiuxiu was afraid that others would think of her grabbing the quilt, so she stayed at home for several days, hoping to wait for the limelight to pass.

After a few days, I didn't hear that the big girl died. Today, at the fair, she couldn't stay at home any longer, so she asked her mother for two dollars, and went to the fair to look around. Suddenly, she heard someone talking about something. In the past two days, the Song family has smelled meat, so they rushed to see what Lily was doing.

Song Xiuxiu would not believe that Lily killed chickens to eat meat by herself. Her second sister-in-law was too timid to speak out loudly, let alone kill chickens.

But she stood outside and counted, and found that there were fewer chickens at home—she regarded the chickens raised by Lily as her own property, and kept a close eye on them. She had said before, "I will take one back when I grow up." Go home and lay eggs", and when he finds that there are few chickens, he will be very angry.

Some people are lazy themselves, but they hate seeing others idle, and they have to say a few words when they see people not working.Lily didn't work, and just basked in the sun with her eyes closed. Although she was skinny to the bone, Song Xiuxiu could see a bit of leisure in her.

Immediately couldn't bear it, so he yelled at the lazy woman.

"It's you..." It wasn't long before Lily took over this body, and before making up her mind how to treat Song Haonian's family, she greeted lightly.

However, Song Xiuxiu was used to seeing her "second sister-in-law" trembling, and suddenly saw that Baihe didn't take her seriously, and was sitting there in a big way, and then she became angry and accused Lily loudly: "I call you, what are you doing?" Mind me? Are you deaf?"

(End of this chapter)